(this may be a long read)
So it seems there's abit of a pattern when it comes to my cars at the moment....
Buy car > spend money on fixing/modifying > get bored or finds something else > sells within 12 months > loose money
I'd like to think the reason for the change is justifiable (well, in my head anyway), but is it financially practical? Usually not.
Lets take the current daily, my 2006 Honda Accord 2.2 i-cdti for example. I've spent a tonne of money repairing it and it's almost at the point of being 100% sorted. Do I have an urge to modify it? Not really. Is this the bordom starting to kick in? That's when I scrolled through Instagram and came across a photo which made me think "Holy crap! That thing looks AWESOME!"
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Instagram tag @ikaspeed
Enter the downward spiral of google/FB/IG searches trying to see what I could find, parts available and just general research. I'm hyperfixated on this new idea that I can't shake it out of my head. Perhaps I have undiagnosed ADHD...anyway...
Fast forward a couple more weeks and I started to actively look for a car to purchase. The first one I found was a green 1.5L with only 22k miles and a clean MOT history. The dealership was 2.5hrs away in West London, I called and was bluntly told to send a text message with the info I wanted to know and which photos. Two weeks had passed with no response, I sent a follow up text but never received any reply.
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Originally I was happy with the 1.5 model but the V6 started to sound tempting. I found a dark green V6 model but this was 5hrs away in Blackpool. I contacted the seller requesting some photos of the underside, he would get some for me the following week.
In the mean time I had found another V6 but this time about 1.5hrs away. We exchanged quite a number of messages but I had this feeling he was dragging his heels abit. This particular car had its MOT expire back in October 2023. He said the welding was done by a previous owner but he had a local company do a full underbody protection using Waxoyl. The car had a vacuum leak and exhaust blow stopping it from getting an MOT.
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A week or so had passed, still no arrangement to go view it. He did come across abit reluctant to fix the vacuum leak, but that's probably me being incredibly impatient and forgetting people do have other stuff going on. The seller had offered to price the car 'pre-MOT' but needed to check and price up the spare parts.
I sent him an offer for the car as it stands with the leaks etc and he accepted. The car was transported to a new location and we agreed a viewing.
The car was as described in the advert, the underneath was solid. I poked a screwdriver to the sills and it bounced off, thats a good sign! All of the wheel arches are solid and so were the chassis rails. The body work was average, the main damage was on the passenger side with a key mark along the whole side. Various panels/areas have had paint work at some point, but I wasn't expecting a 27 year old car to be mint condition.
The test drive was good despite being very short due to no fuel. I did noticed the clutch pedal was quite high which was a concern. The brakes had alot of surface corrosion from being stood up for a few months which was to be expected. The engine ran smooth on start up until the vacuum leak occured, same with the exhaust blow, I'm hoping its a backbox gasket.
I offered a second price and after abit of back and forth bidding, we shook hands at a deal. The Advan SA3R wheels weren't included so I had to bring my own. A friend kindly lent me a set of S14A 16" wheels, turns out the front tyres don't like to hold air.
With the car loaded up, it was time to head home
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